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by Piliyandala group correspondent

Sri Lanka was able to regain freedom without shedding a drop of blood due to intelligent and timely action taken by Prime Minister D. S. Senanayake, said Gamini Lokuge, Minister of Tourism when he was addressing a gathering at the Independence Celebrations meeting held at Piliyandala Park.

He said: "At present, due to intelligent action of our Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesighe, we were able to come to an agreement with the LTTE. We can now celebrate Independence without fear and doubt due to the Ceasefire Agreement.

We are now continuing discussions between both parties, it is the hope of every citizen of Sri Lanka that one day we will achieve lasting peace.

Also we should not forget that Tamils, Muslims and Burghers are also our brother citizens of Mother Lanka.

Therefore, we should always try to live together peacefully, forgetting differences," he said.

It is our bounden duty to protect the independence obtained by our past national leaders. In this struggle all the communities contributed their share.

Our great leaders like Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan, T. B. Jayah, F. R. Senanayake, and several others should be remembered at an occasion like this.

Their patriotic action led to attain freedom from British rule.

But the hatred sown by some people who were power hungry made way to the twenty years war between our own brothers and sisters. Lack of economic freedom to the poor caused such unwanted bloodshed. Therefore the whole nation as one should work together.

We hope that we will achieve lasting peace through this present discussions if all the parties help us to do so," said Sirinal de Mel, President, Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya.

The celebrations were organised by the Kesbewa Divisional Secretariat, Kesbewa Pradeshiya Sabha and zonal education office with the assistance of other government departments in the area. Gamini Lokuge distributed wheelchairs and crutches to disabled persons.

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